FOOD NEWS
How WWII Soldiers Kept Nourished Thanks To Chef Boyardee's Canned Ravioli
BY Lauren Rothman
Chef Boyardee might not be the most delectable presentation of canned pasta, but according to NPR, it helped serve American soldiers during World War II.
The outlet reports that Italian immigrant Ettore "Hector" Boiardi arrived in the U.S. in 1918 and opened his first restaurant, Il Giardino d'Italia, in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1926.
He began selling his spaghetti sauce in glass milk bottles. By 1928, his sauce business was booming, and in 1938, he moved to Milton, Pennsylvania, to open the Chef Boyardee plant.
When American soldiers started heading to Europe to fight in World War II in late 1941 and early 1942, Boiardi kept the factory open 24/7 to produce meals to be shipped abroad.
It's unclear how much food Chef Boyardee sent overseas by the war's end, but it was likely sizable since the plant could produce about 25,000 cans a day at its height (via NPR).